| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
| Yorktown | the site where the British army formally surrendered on October 19, 1781, ending the American Revolution. |
| French Alliance | The French government helped the Americans by sending gunpowder, artillery, and muskets.
*Then, in 1776, the Americans sent Benjamin Franklin to France as an influential diplomat. In his fur cap and homespun coat, he became a favorite with both aristocrats and the ordinary people.
* As a result of Saratoga and Franklin’s diplomatic skills, France soon signed two treaties: One formally recognized the United States as a nation. The other promised military help. In 1780, France sent a 6,000-soldier army to help the Americans fight the British. |
| Marquis de Lafayette | French statesman and officer who viewed the American Revolution as important to the world; he helped finance the Revolution and served as major general. |
| Friedrich von Steuben | Prussian captain; he helped train General George Washington's troops at Valley Forge.
*because of the lack of preparation displayed by the militia troops he trained them
*taught the colonial soldiers to stand at attention, execute field maneuvers, fire and reload quickly, and wield bayonets. |
| The British moved South | After the defeat at Saratoga, the British changed their military strategy.
*In 1778, they began to shift their operations to the South where they hoped to rally Loyalist support, reclaim their former colonies in the region, and then slowly fight their way back north. |
| British success | At the end of the expedition they took Georgia and became a royal colony.
In 1780, General Henry Clinton, who had replaced Howe in New York, along with the ambitious General Charles Cornwallis, sailed south with 8,500 men.
* In their greatest victory of the war, the British captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780 and marched 5,500 American soldiers off as prisoners of war. Clinton then left for New York, leaving Cornwallis to command the British forces in the South and to conquer South and North Carolina.
*Many African Americans joined |
| Charles Cornwallis, | British general and commander of the British army at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. After the defeat of the British army he was forced to surrender to the Americans, ending the American Revolution. |
| British losses in 1781 | Washington ordered Nathanael Greene, his ablest general, to march south and harass Cornwallis as he retreated.
*Greene divided his force into two groups, sending 600 soldiers under the command of General Daniel Morgan to South Carolina.
* Cornwallis, in turn, sent Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his troops to pursue Morgan’s soldiers.
Morgan and his men led the British on a grueling chase through rough countryside.
*When the forces met in January 1781 the outnumbered Continental army fought back and forced the redcoats to surrender.
*Angered by the defeat at Cowpens, Cornwallis attacked Greene two months later at Guilford Court House, North Carolina. Cornwallis won the battle, but the victory cost him nearly a fourth of his troops. Ninety-three were killed, over 400 were wounded, and 26 were missing.
* Greene had weakened the British, but he worried about the fight for the South |
| Cornwallis | After the exhausting battle in the Carolinas, Cornwallis chose to move the fight to Virginia, where he met up with reinforcements.
*First he tried to capture the divisions led by Lafayette and von Steuben. When that failed, Cornwallis made a fateful mistake. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsula between the James and York rivers.
*He camped at Yorktown, a few miles from the original English settlement of Jamestown. Cornwallis planned to fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and then move north to join Clinton’s forces. |
| Lafayette french and americans join | Because the french had already stablished a station when news of Cornwallis’s plans reached him, the Marquis de Lafayette suggested that the American and French armies join forces with the two French fleets and attack the British forces at Yorktown. |
| Yorktown (victory for americans) | Following Lafayette’s plan, the Americans and the French closed in on Cornwallis.
*A French naval force defeated a British fleet. Then it blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby preventing a British rescue by sea. Meanwhile, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and bombarded them day and night.
*The siege of Yorktown lasted about three weeks. On October 17, 1781, with his troops outnumbered by more than two to one and exhausted from constant shelling, Cornwallis finally raised the white flag of surrender. |
| British surrender | General Charles O’Hara, representing Cornwallis, handed over his sword, the British troops laid down their arms. |
| Treaty of Paris | the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, confirming the independence of the United States and setting the boundaries of the new nation.
* The British made no attempt to protect the land interests of their Native American allies
*the treaty did not specify when the British would evacuate their American forts.
On the other side, the Americans agreed that British creditors could collect debts owed them by Americans and promised to allow Loyalists to sue in state courts for recovery of their losses. The state governments, however, later failed to honor this agreement. |
| egalitarianism | the belief that all people should have equal political, economic, social, and civil rights.
*applied only to white men
*The American Revolution did not bring any new political rights to women. A few states made it possible for women to divorce, but common law still dictated that a married woman’s property belonged to her husband. |
| women perspective changes | Before the war, American women had become politically active for the first time, organizing boycotts and later supporting the war effort.
*During the war, women ably managed farms and businesses. Some women fought in battle or forcefully defended their homes. The concept of republican motherhood developed from these roots. It was recognized that women had the first opportunity to educate children in civic responsibilities.
*Republican motherhood encouraged mothers to raise their children to be intelligent, patriotic, and competent citizens, so sons could become leaders and daughters could run households and raise well-educated children. |
| African Americans | The new egalitarianism did not apply to African Americans either. Most African Americans were still enslaved, and even those who were free usually faced discrimination and poverty.
*However, by 1804 many northern states had taken steps to outlaw slavery.
*The Southern states, where slavery was more entrenched, did not outlaw the practice, but most made it easier for slave owners to free their slaves. |
| native Americans | During both the French and Indian War and the Revolution, many Native American communities had either been destroyed or displaced.
* The Native American population east of the Mississippi had declined by about 50 percent. Postwar developments further threatened Native American interests. Settlers from the United States moved west and began taking tribal lands left unprotected by the Treaty of Paris. |
| Creating a New government | Americans had rejected the British system of government, in which kings and nobles held power.
*they set out to establish a stable republic, a government of the people. This new American government would not allow taxation without representation.
*The Continental Congress had chosen a motto for the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States: “a new order of the ages.” |
